Treating Yourself Magazine #17

Publisher/ Editor in Chief Marco Renda [email protected] Assistant to Editor Jef Tek [email protected] Copy Editor Aendrew Rininsland [email protected] Magazine design & layout Ivan Art

[email protected] Director of Sales & Marketing Michelle Rainey

[email protected] Technical Writer

Ally a.k.a Pflover [email protected] Q&A Advisor

Shantibaba

[email protected] Text & photography Contributors Marco Renda, Ændrew Rininsland, Ivan Art, Jeff Armstrong, Michelle Rainey, Otto Williams, Anthony C. Brucato, Dr. Gail Rothman-Marshall, Vycki , Joe, Kimberly, Sheree Krider, Mark Ally Plover, Dr. Steve Blitzer, Tank, Pinky, Trevor Floth, Jef Tek, Bud King, Sagemasta, Shantibaba, Soma, Jay Generation, Harry Resin, Zardoz, Dr Dog, the dog, Al Graham, Wendal Grant, Carrie, Professor420, RatherBBurnin, John (Shiva), Sonic Smoke, Frank T.C.C. # 058, Ale Keppel, Gregorio “Goyo” Fernandez Cover Pic

Gregorio Fernandez “Goyo” for Mr. Nice Seedbank

Submissions

[email protected] Treating Yourself

250 The East Mall, P.O. Box 36531 Etobicoke, Ontario M9B 3Y8 Canada T: + 416 620 1951 F: +416 620 0698 Printed in Canada

Marco Renda- Federal Exemptee - Publisher & Editor in Chief Treating Yourself, The Alternative Medicine Journal - [email protected]

Marco’s Editorial

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 5

Well, I really can’t believe that our web site has been online for seven years already. There have been many changes over the years but one thing that hasn’t changed is the legality of marijuana. I am happy to say that I am now a FREE MAN. I have just finished my sentence of two years probation for pleading guilty to Public Mischief for trying to help medical marijuana patients worldwide. The BC 3 is now becoming the BC 1 because Marc Emery will be fighting extradition by himself. Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams will be sentenced on July 17, 2009 to two year’s probation for their part in the Emery Seeds case. You know it’s a real shame that anyone has to spend even a day in jail for marijuana. You would have thought, with the Supreme Court Order to have a medical marijuana program in place for those in need, that sick patients would have had a supply of QUALITY MMJ but that hasn’t been the case. We patients in Canada still have to fend for ourselves as Health Canada still isn’t abiding by court orders. Our brothers and sisters in the USA still have to deal with the DEA raiding clubs in California even after electing President Obama. We see more States looking at changing the cannabis laws in their State. In California their movie star ‘Governator’ Arnold (I toked) Schwarzenegger is even looking into full legalization of the kind herb in order to help generate some much needed tax revenue. Many of us have been saying all along that the best thing to do is LEGALIZE, REGULATE and TAX all pot sales. States and Countries are losing billions of bucks in potential tax revenues; instead they waste millions more by jailing people for growing and using an HERB. It is time that the elected politicians realize that REEFER MADNESS isn’t the way to go, people (including the nonuser) are getting informed that they were LIED to for decades about the harm of marijuana. So I

ask you, our readers, to NOT give up as we are gaining ground on the naysayer. For those who don’t need to use marijuana presently, marijuana might help you cope with your future ailments one day, you just never know.

Take Care and Peace Marco

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Marco’s Editorial

Homecoming for Leonard Peltier

Ask Medicinal Michelle

Society

Get Serious! with medical marijuana Ditch Those Plastic Sandwich Bags! From the Needy to the Greedy Are We Addicted?

Hemp Chronicles

Who is Dr. Frankenbeanstein?

Why I was “fired” from my physician in Louisville, Kentucky

A Teenager’s Medical Marijuana Story

Health

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children! Endocannabinoid System Dysfunction and ADD/ADHD The fifth vital sign We could really use some objective tests for pain

Health Testimonials

Living on Borrowed Time Who is Pinky?

Chronic Pain and How a Simple Plant Gave My Life Back

5 11 13 15 16 19 20 23 30 34 36 55 56 58 64

Inside this issue...

Herbal Aire Give Away HID HUT Hotbox Magazine H.U.M.A.N. Hydroponicz KDK Distributors Leonard Peltier MMA of America MM Seeds Wholesaler Michelle Rainey Moe Medibles Montreal Seedbank Mr.Nice Seedbank Natural Universe Nirvana Paradise Seeds Patient ID Center LA Patient ID Center Oakland Planetary Pride Pyramid Seeds RooR Seed Boutique Serious Seeds SHHC

Silver Surfer Vaporizer SOMA seeds

THC Farmers.com THSeeds Trimpro TY Subscribe West Coast Cannabis WeedWorld World of Seeds Vaporizers.ca Cartoons Ivan Art Georgiatoons 35 28 127 80 74 8 74 128 124 IB+BCover 14 122 24 53 26 54 69 18 24 39 3 10 24 96-98 12 124 126 75 18 68 IFCover 62 54 116 63 99 28 83 28 26 43 117 93 123 4 35 88 33 39 9 17,32

Issue 17 - Advertisers Index

Harry Resin’s JAMAICAN ADVENTURE

INSIDE ISSUE NO. 17

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 7

Treating Yourself wishes to remind readers to be aware that the sale, possession and transport of viable cannabis seeds is illegal in many coun-tries, particularly in the USA. We do not wish to induce anyone to act in conflict with the law. We do not promote the germination and growth of these seeds where prohibited by law. Treating Yourself assumes no responsibility for any claims or representations contained in this publica-tion or in any advertisement. All material is for entertainment and educapublica-tional purposes only! Treating Yourself does not encourage the ille-gal use of any of the products or advertisements within. All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of Treating Yourself. Nothing in this publication may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part without the expressed written consent of the publisher. All rights reserved. All advertised products and offers void where prohibited. Occasionally we may use material we believe to be placed in the public domain. Sometimes it is not possible to identify or contact the copyright holder. If you claim ownership of something we have published we will be pleased to make a proper acknowledgement. All letters and pictures sent are assumed to be for publication unless stated otherwise. Treating Yourself can not be held responsible for unsolicited contributions. No portion of this publication can be reproduced for profit without the written consent of the publisher.

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Grow

Alive & kicking the importance of a strains’ health and long term fitness…

To Hell In a Bucket Growing with The Heart DNA Genetics goes Feminized Organic Outdoor Grown Cannabis Herban Guerilla Grower

The Joy of Container Gardening

Smoke Reports

Travel

Harry Resin’s Jamaican Adventure

Reviews

“Sentinel” VCG27 propane burning CO2 generator Da Buddah Vaporiser and Oil Diffuser

Massively Medicinal Munchies from Moe’s Medibles

Events

TY Continues the Education at the Toronto Home and Garden Show

The Continuing Adventures of MA

Recipes

Carrie’s Canna Olive Oil

TY Contest entry form & winner

66 70 76 81 84 89 92 94 100 110 114 115 116 118 120 125 130 Centerfold Posters

SOCIETY

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 11

The Turtle Mountain’s Reservation’s most famous citizen — arguably one of the best-known political prisoners in the world today — wants to come home. It has been more than three decades since Leonard Peltier has set foot on his home reserva-tion. Gerald Ford was president when the June 26, 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge reservation left FBI agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams dead. Amnesty International and at least 55 U.S. con-gressional representatives have since questioned the fairness of the trial and called for executive clemency or a retrial, yet six presidents have snubbed pleas for his release. International politi-cal leaders who have been in Peltier’s position, such as the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, have been outspoken in their calls for his freedom. However, non-Indian elected officials in the Dako-tas have avoided the issue like the plague. Most recently, U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, claimed in a letter to the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LPDOC) that Peltier’s trial was “fair and just” and that he was, in essence, receiving due justice. The LPDOC had faxed 34 pages of petitions containing hundreds of signatures from Turtle Mountain residents to Dorgan, calling for Peltier’s freedom after 33 years of captivity. The Turtle Mountain tribal council has passed three resolutions in the last year calling for Peltier’s release or transfer to tribal custody, as Peltier pre-pares for a major parole hearing this year.

LPDOC organizers say Turtle Mountain’s support will be critical in holding the federal government to its 30-year rule, under which life prisoners are presumed eligible for parole in the absence of seri-ous prison offenses or threats to reoffend. Sara Jane Moore, a white radical sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to assassinate Presi-dent Ford, was released from custody recently under the parole commission rule. The reservation

has agreed to hold Peltier in its custody pending his parole and to provide tribal housing if he is released. However, LPDOC executive coordinator Betty Peltier-Solano, Leonard’s sister, cautioned that the Turtle Mountain resolutions have had all the resonance of one-hand clapping. “We’re grate-ful for the symbolic support of the tribal council, but it’s time for them to put their money where their mouth is. We haven’t even been able to meet with them lately. My brother was just assaulted in prison and we need to stand up and make our voices heard. We urge Turtle Mountain members to contact their tribal leaders, as well as Senator Dorgan, to demand that Leonard be allowed to return home,” said Peltier-Solano. Unlike the self-styled “wars” waged by Moore and other white radicals, the conflict on Pine Ridge in the 1970s was a very real battle in which AIM was the last line of defense for traditional Lakotas from feder-ally-backed goon squads that terrorized the reser-vation. The LPDOC has long called for a compre-hensive congressional investigation of the federal government’s role in the violence on Pine Ridge. The 1975 shootout led to the cancellation of a Senate committee’s investigation of FBI infiltration of AIM. “We have to remember that the FBI agents were only two of the dozens of victims of violence on Pine Ridge. Leonard has expressed regret for the deaths of the agents, even though he was not responsible. When will the U.S. govern-ment do the same for the victims of BIA police and goons, like Pedro Bissonette?” asked Peltier-Solano. If the FBI has its way, however, the only way the American Indian Movement activist will leave federal prison is in a body bag. Outgoing U.S. Attorney for North Dakota Drew Wrigley predicts that they will succeed. “We are going to continue to fight to uphold a just verdict. He should be in prison for the rest of his natural life.”

Homecoming for

Leonard Peltier?

ASK MEDICINAL MICHELLE

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 13

Hey Michelle,

I admire you as a medicinal patient so much you have no idea! It’s hard for me being a medicinal patient from New York because they are taking a long time to pass new laws here for it. I was diagnosed with severe anorexia and anxiety-depression when I was only 14 and used normal medications and counseling for four years with no progress and I was in and out of the hospital for low weight until a family member from California introduced me to medical marijuana when I was 18 and it is a miracle. It not only relieves my anxiety (which anchors my anorexia) but it stimulates my appetite and completely relieves me mentally and physically with no side effects! My parents never condoned me smoking pot until it was medicinal and they realized how much it really helped me function fully every day since I have used it. I hope someday I can experience the freedom of medicinal marijuana like you and not feel like a criminal for using med-icine to function every day and work and pay taxes like the government should want me to do. Thanks for your time and your hard work as an activist. What admires me most about you is that after you fought as hard as you did for yourself to get your medicine you didn’t stop and you keep fighting for everyone else.

GOD BLESS! Nick

Dear Nick,

Thank you for having the courage to share your story with myself and TY. Anorexia nervosa is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents. The average age of onset is 17 with females being the majority. Standard treatments are ongoing medical care, regular therapy, nutritional coun-seling, and possible medication. The latest statistics show over 20% of youth is also suffering from emotional problems causing depression and suicidal thoughts. Traditional anti depressant drugs are poorly tolerated by teenagers because of common side effects, including drowsiness and sedation. The family member who suggested medical marijuana should be commended for their progressive advice in treating your diffi-cult conditions. Considering the negative side effects that pharmaceuticals can have on a young mind and body using marijuana as an alternative approach was a brave choice. Currently 13 states in America allow for medicinal purposes and more will follow now that a new compassionate Presi-dent has called an end to raiding legal cannabis dispensaries. Nick you should never have to feel like a criminal for treating yourself like the millions of other responsible medicinal cannabis consumers. North America is closer now than it has ever been to ending cannabis prohibition. My faith, confi-dence, and determination remain strong as I continue to advocate for the gentle souls like yourself that deserve a choice in their own health care.

xxxoooMedicinal Michelle

Hi Michelle,

I was hoping on getting that information package you offer. My name is Marc and here's a bit of my story. I'm a 31 year old stay at home dad of 2 married to my high school sweetheart. For as long as I remember I’ve suf-fered from extreme anxiety and panic attacks which in turn made me depressed (unable to hold a job made me feel useless). Chronic back and neck pain as well as daily headaches increased my depression. I've been taking anti-depressants everyday for about 12 years now, switching types of meds when one would stop working all having side effects. Taking Tranquilizers before bed to help me sleep and Tylenol all day for various types of pain, as well as smoking a pack of cigarettes per day, my body was a toxic dump!! I’ve been smoking cannabis since the age of about 15 as well. (Recreational smoker) About 19 months ago I decided it was time to flush my body of as many chemicals as possible, starting with cigarettes. That very same day I ran out of my sleeping pills, so I stopped taking those too. I obviously went through all kinds of withdrawal symptoms. My savior has been, CANNABIS. It helped me get to sleep, get my appetite back, calms my anxiety, it's taking care of my pain issues as well, although I still require a few Tylenol once in a while. I was also diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome many years ago. The increase in appetite has improved my diet which in turn has dramatically improved my body's abili-ty to digest properly. Basically I feel like a new man, full of energy and full of smiles for my kids! Thanks for put-ting yourself out there and risking so much to help people like me, I'm extremely grateful. I'm still taking a small dose of anti-depressants daily, but hopefully someday I'll be pharmaceutical free!!

Thank you, Marc

Dear SD,

Many individuals suffer from chronic debilitating migraines and have found cannabis to alleviate the pain. The prescribed medication for people with severe migraine attacks are triptans. Sumatriptan (Imitrex) was the first drug specifically developed to treat migraines. Related medications include rizatriptan (Maxalt), nara-triptan (Amerge), zolminara-triptan (Zomig), almonara-triptan (Axert), frovatriptan (Frova) and eletriptan (Relpax). Side effects of triptans include nausea, dizziness; muscle weakness and, rarely, stroke and heart attack. It would be safe to say that cannabis is a much safer choice. My Medicinal Cannabis Education Package is in the mail to you SD! It will guide you through the necessary steps to continue treating yourself! If I can assist further please let me know. XO Medicinal Michelle

A

sk

M

ichelle

’ve thought about ways to say this without offending people, but after a lot of consideration I’ve come to the conclusion that its impossible. Whenever you comment on religion somebody is going to be offended, no matter how nice you say things. People in the marijuana industry tell me to just drop this subject, but I can’t. I see this as a fundamental problem in North America and in the marijuana movement as a whole. We will never be taken seriously if we use the reli-gious approach, its time to get the scientific community behind us with more cold hard facts.

The proliferation of people in the marijuana movement that are call-ing themselves Reverend, drives me crazy, give me a f’n break already! Maybe in America this looks impres-sive, but to the rest of the world all his pseudo religious bullshit looks like a bunch of charlatans and con-men. While the rest of the civilized world is embracing the truths of the scientific and casting off the super-stitions of the past, America seems

I

SOCIETY

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 15

to be backsliding into a dark age of religious psychosis.

Church of the Holy Gimme My Grass, or whatever you want to call it! If this is the approach we are going to use to gain our legal free-dom, I’m afraid we’re all doomed. I understand that calling yourself a church or religion can give you some legal protection in the USA, but in the end I think its just shooting yourself in the foot. Nobody with half a thought can take these people seriously, I certainly can’t. Its embar-rassing to be put in the same classi-fication as them. If these are the people we present as our community examples and representatives, we defiantly won’t have the support of most smokers.

The Doctors and professors amongst us need to be presenting the facts about marijuana if we want to be taken seriously and have the sup-port of society as a whole. If a doctor with a scientific paper says that marijuana can control seizures, peo-ple will listen. If it’s a long haired

hippy who calls himself “reverend” presenting the same information, it will be ignored and laughed at. Its time to get smart with this legal-ization fight, not just emotional! Its just marketing people! We know the truth about the benefits of marijua-na, and we all desire to use it freely. Its time to package our movement in a non-offensive, media friendly way, with extra stress on the scien-tific facts and not the spiritual. Thanks Marco for focusing on the clinical medical uses in TY, the spiri-tual stuff is ok in small doses(for some people).

Ps.. and please, no offence to any reverends out there, its not about you personally.. most “reverends” out there that I’ve met are great positive people. I don’t know if Marco will publish this, but I think its important to share these com-mon views even though it my be offensive to many readers here.

Get Serious!

with medical marijuana

SOCIETY

annabis is an eco-friendly herbal substance that is as easy to grow. Every human being should have the right to grow and consume cannabis for medicinal, therapeutic, and responsible adult recre-ational use. One ecological rrecre-ationale for legalizing cannabis is that, unlike synthetic medications, it does not need to be processed to

become medicine.

Compared to growing outdoor cannabis, produc-ing synthetic pills takes a lot more energy while creating unnecessary waste and pollu-tion. Cannabis can be grown, picked, and left to dry before consumption just like other common herbs with no negative impact on the environment. This herbal plant that many medicinal cannabis users applaud for its array of healing and meditative properties is not only a total-ly natural product, but it could actualtotal-ly add a benefit to the earth, because any waste products can be recy-cled through composting. In addition, any tax money collected from legalized sale of cannabis could be ear-marked for environmental clean up and sustainability research. Although legalizing cannabis could help reduce the carbon footprint and negative environmental impact associated with the black market economy that now exists, there is still much that growers, traders, and consumers can do now to go green.

One of the green steps cannabis consumers can take is to stop purchasing cannabis in plastic sandwich bags. It is astounding to think about the numbers of sand-wich bags once stuffed with cannabis that are thrown away daily only to sit in some landfill for hundreds of years before breaking down. Cannabis traders and con-sumers could reduce their negative environmental impact by simply replacing plastic sandwich bags with reusable containers such as medicine bottles or classic glass jars, or biodegradable material such as recycled paper envelopes. Cannabis traders could request their cus-tomers to bring reusable containers along with them. If a town is very strict on cannabis possession and plastic sandwich bags are deemed the only safe way to conceal the cannabis, then reusing sandwich bags from previous purchases would still be helpful to preserve our increas-ingly fragile environment.

Another step in going green is to buy local homegrown cannabis. Buying imported cannabis from other countries or even from across our own country creates a large carbon

C

Ditch Those

Plastic Sandwich Bags!

By Anthony C. Brucato

E-mail: [email protected] Edited by: Dr. Gail Rothman-Marshall, Ph.D

SOCIETY

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 17

trade local cannabis, but as people begin to understand the impact of current practices on their environ-ment, they will also see the need for eco-friendly changes within the cannabis market and how repealing cannabis prohibition can be one more step toward saving the planet. To change the status quo, cannabis users must work to help legalize medicinal and recreational cannabis in their country. Repealing the cannabis prohibition can be fostered by educating the general public, local law enforcement and politicians at all levels of government about the public safety, economic and environ-mental benefits of growing cannabis locally. We need to give our deci-sion makers information that will convince them to support an end to cannabis prohibition once and for all.

Once cannabis prohibition is fully repealed, going green in the cannabis markets will be much easier to do. Legitimizing cannabis markets could provide more green choices for consumers by allowing medicinal and responsible adult recreational cannabis consumers to demand to know how and where their cannabis was grown, and to encourage grow-ers and tradgrow-ers to use eco-friendly growing and packaging practices. If you have any green ideas or eco-friendly suggestions, please share them with us!

If you have an appropriately pri-vate setting and adequate growing season, the best way to go green is to grow cannabis outdoors. Grow-ing cannabis outside means free solar energy from the sun and water from the rain. The earth will naturally take care of this hardy “weed” for you as long as you watch out for extreme weather conditions, animals, and insects that could harm your outdoor crops.

Producing homegrown cannabis will keep you out of the black mar-ket and with a little caution and common sense also keep you out of jail.

It is a risky business to grow and footprint because of the energy

needed to transport it long distances to the consumer. Buying local home-grown cannabis or cannabis that is grown as close as possible to where it will be distributed could have a positive impact on curbing the amounts of carbon emissions creat-ed by the transportation process. Although buying locally is definite-ly an eco-frienddefinite-ly concept, it is not always possible to find out where cannabis comes from, especially because cannabis growers and traders might lie to protect them-selves from being busted. If buying local cannabis is a problem, consid-er growing a few plants for your personal use. If you have access to high quality cannabis seeds, you could experiment by growing dif-ferent strains or you could stick with the favorite strain of your choice. To make less of a negative impact on the environment from growing cannabis, look for Energy Star and eco-friendly supplies, appli-ances, light bulbs, and alike. Use timers to cut down the excessive waste of electricity and water. Use composted soil, organic fertilizers, and biodegradable materials to avoid chemical-laden products, and use grey water to feed your plants and reduce water consumption. Cloning your plants can reduce the overall growing time and electricity consumption before harvest.

www

.dnagenetics.com/

SOCIETY

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 19

n 1996, California passed the first medical marijuana law in the United States. The intent was to relieve the suffering of seriously ill and terminal patients. Since then, the indeter-minate nature of the law has given rise to widespread abuse and misuse of medicalized cannabis. The average medical cannabis patient uses about twelve ounces of marijuana per year, which is less than the pro-duction of one average plant. If every legitimate patient or care-giver could grow two good-sized plants, there would be no need for dispensaries of dubious quali-fication. The article that was written by John Rolling Thunder is very accurate in his claims regarding how dispensaries in Sacramento are run. They are making huge profits for the own-ers, who behave more like

ven-ture capitalists than advocates. These businesses are being run as de facto for-profit entities, charg-ing unaffordable prices to patients and obtaining some of their cannabis from drug dealers and thieves. Although they are not professional medical facili-ties, they are storing the confi-dential financial and medical information of patients, unpro-tected by doctor-patient confiden-tiality laws. Patients have no idea who is looking at their files and don’t know anything about the workers at the dispensaries, who are not required to have any qualifications for the job, other than to be still breathing. Patients also don’t know who they are associating with at club meetings, functions and other gatherings because virtually any-one can get a recommendation for cannabis and be accepted at a

Sacramento club, even drug deal-ers, addicts and convicted felons. Unsuspecting patients, thinking they are joining an advocacy organization, place themselves in a precarious position and find themselves with no backing if they have trouble. Medical cannabis has helped a large num-ber of very sick people, particu-larly AIDS and cancer patients, and those who cannot tolerate conventional medications. We need to find a better way of regu-lating it to shut out the predators and safeguard those who need help. Otherwise, those who oppose this medication will con-tinue to hold up the perversions of the law that are occurring in Sacramento as proof that medical use of cannabis should be ended. Maybe Sacramento is just too lawless to have any dispensaries at all.

I

From the

Needy

to the

Greedy

How Sacramento has

Perverted California’s

Medical Marijuana Law.

SOCIETY

I feel a bit exhausted from the con-stant debate surrounding whether or not cannabis is addictive. Many physicians convince themselves and their patients that they are addicted to cannabis. I became driven to write this article after a conversation with a long-time user last week for whom I have much respect. He was telling me how his doctor knew he was addicted to marijuana. He even, with a great sense of self-doubt, began to tell me of all the reasons his physi-cian gave him that he was beginning to believe. It saddens and amazes me how even the strongest of hearts and minds can become contaminated and turned from their own beliefs when faced with too much doubt, propa-ganda and nay-saying. Worse still, in the face of someone intelligent and educated, it is even easier to believe that they may know better than one’s own self.

It seems that we don't understand this issue and our doctors are con-fused as well. Truly though, how can we expect our physicians to have a good understanding of addiction when there is debate amongst them-selves? Due to the confusion caused by changes made to the DSM label-ing of "addiction" belabel-ing changed to "dependence," many doctors were left to wonder about many of their patients. In the past, they may have only considered them physically-dependent, but now they are falling under the criteria of "addiction." What muddy waters we tread when physicians, patients and moralizers are all confused about addiction and what it really means...

This very issue is discussed in an arti-cle published in May of 2006 in The American Journal of Psychiatry. The authors of this article point out that

"anyone who takes medications that affect the CNS" can become physi-cally-dependent and that this is total-ly normal. Physical dependence is seen in persons taking heroin and alcohol as well as those that take psychoactive medications such as anti depressants or beta blockers. We would never consider those patients on antidepressants or beta blockers to be "addicted" — the medicine they take is necessary for alleviation of their symptoms of serious cardiac disease or depression. We would think them crazy to risk their health in not taking them. They would not miss a dose and would take them every day at regular times as any-thing else would likely be a risk to their condition. Yet when persons medicating with cannabis do the same, we think that they cannot do without the drug, somehow forget-ting all at once that if it were treated as medication for a condition, the use would be the same.

So with all this in mind, how do we come to a consensus about this? I have always had only one test myself, but it is merely an opinion and not at all objective. Thus, I want to begin by examining the current criteria for addiction as it stands in the DSM IV. Taken from the addic-tions and recovery website, the defi-nition is as follows:

Medical Definition

of Addiction

The medical definition of addiction has seven criteria. This definition is based on the criteria of American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV) and the World Health Organization (ICD-10). DSM stands for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Are We

Addicted?

An addiction is any

behavior that meets at

least three of the seven

criteria during the same

12-month period.

1. Tolerance. Has your use of

drugs or alcohol increased over time?

2. Withdrawal. When you

stop using, do you experience at least one of the following symptoms: irritability, anxiety, shakes, sweats, nausea, or vom-iting?

3. Difficulty controlling your use. Do you sometimes use

more or for a longer time than you'd like? Do you drink to get drunk?

4. Negative consequences.

Have you continued to use even though there have been negative consequences to your mood, self-esteem, health, job, or fami-ly?

5. Significant time or emo-tional energy spent. Do you

spend a significant amount of time or thought obtaining, using, concealing, planning, or recovering from your use?

6. Put off or neglected activ-ities. Have you given up or

reduced social, recreational, work, or household activities because of your use?

7. Desire to cut down. Have

you repeatedly thought about cutting down or controlling your use, or have you made unsuccessful attempts to cut down or control your use? (Source: http://www.addictionsan- drecovery.org/definition-of-addiction.htm)

SOCIETY

Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 21 that it is merely a confirmation that

you use the drug in question. Perhaps you have become tolerant to it or dependent on it for relief and that your cellular response to that med-ication is perfectly "normal" given the expected action and side-effect profile of this drug. Again, I am not sure how this can become a criteria to help someone truly define if another individual has a serious problem or not. For personal refer-ence, I would have answered yes to both one and two, leaving us now only needing one more “yes” to con-sider me addicted.

3. Difficulty Controlling Your Use: I can only respond to this point in a more subjective and less scientific way. From my own personal experi-ence as a non-smoker, it was so hard for me to choose this type of medica-tion. All of the things that go along with choosing a medicine that has a smokeable form that is most easy to dose regulate and tolerate, do not come along with any positive points to argue — unless, of course, you are already well-read, researched and comfortable with the substance. Years of propaganda and hiding of ongoing real scientific studies have kept many intelligent minds in fear of trying something that may help them. I felt like a criminal the first time I tried it. I had been ill and in pain for months with no pharmaceu-tical offering me any relief, and yet here I was, in a back alley, puffing on a joint with a "kid." He was 20, I was 32. I hated to smoke, hated the smell (At first; funny how that comes to change...) and was afraid of the smell on my clothing. It didn't take much then. A small hit and nausea was long gone, along with the muscle spasms in my back. How could this be illegal, when in minutes it did what pills, physiotherapy, massage and psycho therapy had not done? I couldn't figure it out myself, but still I felt wrong each time I sought relief in this way. This feeling of guilt could certainly lead the individual to think that they, perhaps, were having diffi-culty controlling their use, but this guilt does not mean they have a problem. To me, this is more indica-tive of society's negaindica-tive judgements

surrounding use. I tried to hide it and my mother would smell it on me. She would make negative comments on how people would perceive me and that this could be the reason I was having a hard time finding a job. I went to great lengths to hide the "shame" of the public judgement of what I was doing to seek relief. I had multiple showers, carried mouth-wash and floss — I even had a purse-sized cologne for emergencies! I often wanted to use less. It cost so much. The more I used, the better I felt, so it was a constant battle to prove to myself that I really needed this medication. Was I really having difficulty controlling my use, or was I on a proper medication regime that needed a steady state to achieve relief? If I hurt, I used. If I raged, I used. If I got sick, I used. I used for the pain. The worse the pain got, the more I needed to use. I was control-ling pain and cannabis was all that helped. Could this really constitute proof that I am an addict, or does it merely prove that, in the face of great judgement and injustice, I was strong enough to make a choice that was in the best interest of my health and well being? My level of pain and anxiety has always controlled the amount I use, not the cannabis mak-ing me use more. Needmak-ing more is merely more proof of my biological-ly natural tolerance.

4. Negative Consequences: Again this issue is better dealt with from a more personal angle. There are numerous negative consequences in choosing to use a medicine that, by many, is considered illegal. My Mom, for a long time, had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I did use and then subsequently how much I used and how often. We are still coming to a better place of understanding and she loves me. Imagine all those people out there that don't even know who I am, never mind that I am using legally, and with the sanction of my physi-cian. They don't have to accept my use and are free to think the awful things they do. Repeatedly, I have heard that I don't look sick or don't appear disabled, as if somehow that label means that I am now not sup-Let us now examine each of these

points, my cannabis use, some med-ical research, how these questions relate to me and what they really mean.

1. Tolerance: The very first point the DSM looks at is tolerance and yet, in the article discussed above as well as an article published in The Journal Of Neuroscience on April 11 of 2007 entitled "A Molecular Basis of Anal-gesic Tolerance to Cannabinoids," both authors talk about the very real circumstance of repeated dosing exposure creating a physical toler-ance that is very different from the compulsive, drug-seeking behaviour demonstrated in serious drug addic-tion. "In summary, this study estab-lishes a crucial functional link between lysosomal sorting of CB1 and tolerance to cannabinoid induced analgesia and clarifies the molecular mechanisms underlying these biologically and clinically sig-nificant phenomenon."

(Source: The Journal of Neuroscience, April 11 2007, 27(15)4165-4177;doi: 10.1523JNEUROSCI.5648-06.2007)

It would seem to me, that in the face of this kind of scientific information, one can no longer really equate toler-ance or the requirement to have more to achieve the same effect as a criteria for addiction. Each and every patient taking a medication that affects the Central Nervous System would have physical tolerance and, in fact, this is why many medications must be weaned both up and down in dose and are not safe to stop tak-ing without the advice of your physi-cian. This very confusion is what has many pain patients under-medicated, even with traditional pain-relieving medications. Either their physicians are afraid to give them more, or worse, they are afraid to take them for fear of the very real possibility of physical dependence.

2. Withdrawl: It would seem that this point is related to point one. If one achieves a physical tolerance to a medication and this can be proved to scientifically be a chemical fact of the compound having been used in ques-tion, then how can the expected physical withdrawal be an indication of addiction? It would seem to me

SOCIETY

cannabis world, unless you grow your own, there is often a significant amount of energy spent trying to locate your medicine as the illegality leads other people to be afraid to admit they use, admit they grow or even to help another for fear that their own license would be in jeaprody. To give even one gram is a legal offence for trafficking. To leave my roach behind in a public ashtray is considered trafficking. There is no consideration for altruism in the giv-ing of a small amount, so there is no safe way for one person to assist another and not be breaking the law beyond what is defined in the very narrow confines permitted by the Designated grower (PPL & DPL) permits of the current MMAR. This is presuming one even has access to quasi-legal forms of obtaining the medicine, either through sick friends or compassion clubs. If one has no access to such liberties, one is forced to the street to find someone that will admit to dealing in cannabis. Many times, due to cost, one can only afford to buy a limited amount at a time, which leaves them out each week or as often as each day looking for medicine. The prices vary and quality medicine can cost as much as $340 an ounce. If one had to procure the three ounces a week I use regular-ly, you can imagine the amount of time that would be spent trying to find, obtain and pay for such sup-plies. Many other medical patients, I'm sure, have nightmare stories like mine of going to an alley and waiting an hour for someone to show up with your medicine. We would love the freedom to walk into a store and see an array of strains from which to choose.

6. Put off or neglect activities & 7. Desire to cut down. These points cannot be any indication either really as part of the criterion. Most people do not like to take their medicine of even regular pharmaceu-ticals. Most people would prefer to not have to take anything to feel nor-mal and cannabis is no exception. In speaking to many other medical users, I have heard time and time

again about the effort that is taken up in grinding and rolling their med-icine, or the time it takes to sit and vaporize. Most of us would love to cut down so it didn't steal so much time from our day, or force us to choose what events we may attend by whether or not there is a place to medicate, or if it will be accepted, or if we will expose children. No med-ication that I can think of steals more from your time and leaves you out of more events than cannabis, but this is due to society's unwillingness to accept me and my medicine any-where — not me giving up life to use cannabis.

In my opinion, through their best efforts, some of the physicians still have it wrong. They can't see past the illegality and presume their patients must have lost their minds to choose this medicine. They truly believe that there must be a tradi-tional pharmaceutical to do the same but the truth of the matter is that people would not, in droves, be mak-ing this most difficult choice to use cannabis if there were any other workable alternative. The only true test I have thought defined addiction was to reduce yourself to activities or behaviour you normally would not on a moral ground to obtain your medicine. For a woman to sell her body to obtain drugs when this was normally against her nature, to steal from parents or family to feed the need, or in any way to hurt or harm another person to obtain financing for your drug. This more compulsive drug seeking behaviour has been the real defining line for me. The DSM is not just criticized by myself. I found this quote in Wikipedia, "The most fundamental criticism of the DSM concerns the construct validity and reliability of its diagnostic categories and criteria. Although increasingly standardized, critics argue that the DSM's claim of an empirical founda-tion is overstated." No matter how many ways I read the DSM IV’s def-inition, my answer to myself remains the same.

Am I addicted? I think not. posed to take care of myself, get

exercise, be ambulatory or have a smile on my face. In the face of my pain, my life must continue. I still have to get groceries, go to the doc-tor and, on the few occasions where I can find a place to allow me to medicate either by vapourization or smoking, I then get to socialize for a short time. I deserve this kind of life. People not wanting to be exposed to my medicine can limit where I can go and whom I can be with. Immediate-ly my life was smaller but does this negative consequence mean I am addicted? I think not. It would be hard to demonstrate that my desire to choose to feel at my best instead of being certain places or around cer-tain people is not one of the most self-loving and sane choices I make on a daily basis. If I did not have my licence to grow, I could certainly have some negative consequences both societally and legally. Again, though — this is due to the culture of prohibition and the reefer madness that has continued unabated for decades. With Bill C-15 now on the rise for debate again, and mandatory penalties for growing even one plant, sick people all over Canada will be relegated to the status of criminals in droves. Does all of this mean that those who choose to defy this law are all addicts? Certainly not! They are either poor and driven by need or they are just opportunists ready to take advantage of feeding an existing market. If the risk is the same for one plant as it is for 200, the decision would only make sense to grow for all your friends and try to pay off some vast medical bills or daily life needs that have not been met through your inability to earn. This would not make one an addict, but merely resourceful in dire circum-stances. I have often felt that poverty leads people to make choices they may not have otherwise in order to survive. The negative consequences all come from the illegalities and penalties imposed by courts, friends, family and society as a whole. 5. Significant Energy Spent: Objectively or subjectively in the

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Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 23

hank Dr Frankenbeanstein, a.k.a. the Skunkman — real name, David Watson. At a 1997 Vancouver Hemp con-ference, Watson spoke of his research. His main focus was to stop growers from cloning nor being able to create any seeds, from strains being bred in Amsterdam. The funding for this research came partially from the Dutch Govern-ment, the rest from DEA. Watson had been busted for growing in Santa Cruz California in 1985 and resurfaced in Amsterdam to start his seed company Cultivator’s Choice. DEA supported the Skunkman’s application for a license to grow for research in Hol-land, even though they should have been extraditing him back to Cali-fornia for his 1985 grow bust in

Santa Cruz! DEA endorsement was so strong that he was the first to be granted a permit in Holland while several universities and domestic research groups with PHDs and legitimate reasons for research were denied! The Dutch government even supplied three greenhouses for Dr. Frankenbeanstein to do his heinous experiments, while normal Dutch growers lost all their equip-ment and had to serve murder-like sentences at that time! Dutch seed companies have become the Mon-santo of the cannabis seed industry, and hope to make us all seed junkies at $20 a seed!

The license gave Hortapharm/ Skunkman/ DEA control over what researchers are allowed access to pedigreed seeds of predictable

qual-Who is

Dr. Frankenbeanstein?

Joe Pietri

T

Editors note:

After printing part one of this article, Dr. Frankenbeanstein threatened to have all Dutch advertising cancelled in Skunk magazine, which amounts to 60 per cent of their revenue. This is the complete article in full as we believe readers should have access to the full story.

Are your expensive

Dutch female seeds

hard to clone, or when

you try to breed them,

all you get are

her-maphrodites?

ity. The object is to patent up every possible combination of cannabi-noids and terpenes with efficacy for every possible disease they can treat, and every possible genetic sequence. Once ready to make the move, they will shut down every medical cannabis grower for patent fraud, and those they can’t will be run out when they produce a more effective product for significantly less than the $250 an ounce the growers are getting. The Skunkman’s company, Hor-tapharm, is the only private organ-ization approved by the Drug Enforcement Agency to supply genetics to researchers to this day. Gibberillen is a natural growth stimulant, that also changes the sex in plants, male to female, female to

CBD by itself has also been shown to be very effective in treating anx-iety disorders with the effectiveness of valium and other benzo drugs and without the extreme addictive-ness and potential for overdose. Valium and benzos are the most dangerous drugs to detox from, their withdrawal many times worse than crack or heroin. The only time cannabis users ever really had access to a higher level of CBD was with hashish farmed with populations of varying ratios of Bd and Bt genes! So as it stands now, CBD is not available to any real extent to medical cannabis users. If industrial hemp farmers were to catch on, that they’re pro-ducing a very needed medicine, it will harm GW Pharm/Hor-tapharm!

In the UK all you hear of is the dangers of the new Skunk weed: that it leads to psychosis, that it drives people insane. Just a few years back, it looked like cannabis laws in the UK were loosening. Cannabis was re-classified back down to level 2 and was made the lowest priority for the police. All of a sudden, however, this new Skunk strain is introduced, causing mass hysteria and reefer madness, to the extent that cannabis is reclassified back up to level1! What happened? One thing we know, the last thing that GWPharm/Hortapharm wants is the medical cannabis scene catching hold as it has in Cal-ifornia. Hortapharm, with the sup-port of DEA and GW Pharm, have introduce a genetically-engineered super strain of Skunkweed, that makes people paranoid, psychotic, and makes you completely stupid. If you’re not an experienced smok-er, you may not handle it well. First time smokers can be scared straight, never to use cannabis again! Remember that the chief lobbyist/spokeperson for GW Pharm is a DEA head!

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Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 25

male. First discovered in the 1930's by researchers looking for hor-mones to stop elongation of the stem during early growth stages of rice and prevent crop failures due to to drought or excessive rain dur-ing early growth stages. After many years of research, in the 1950s, gib-berillens were found that had the optimum of success in treating this problem. This is also when researchers discovered that gibber-illens had beneficial effects on many food crops, increasing their yields tenfold. Professor Carlson of Midwestern University created sonic bloom in the late 70s, using gibberillens and fertilizers, that when applied to crops , then bom-barded with sonic waves at a specif-ic frequency, produced yields in most crops that were increased 4-10 fold!

The discovery of the effects of gib-berillens were first noted by Sues, who discovered the product in the early 80s, and tried it as sold by Carlson for increasing his garden’s yield by using their product and playing music to his plants. It worked! It not only increased his yields, but produced a few seeds in his stable of pure females plants! The ingredient was gibberillens! After using the product several times, he had seeds in every crop thereafter. Confused as to why, his research discovered the main active ingredient was gibberillen. After using this for several years, he noticed that, depending on when you sprayed, that there would be a few seeds or a large amount of seeds. Size pretty much increased every time. From these experi-ments, he discovered that pure sta-ble female plants could be sprayed at the appropriate times and pro-duce a few male stamens that would create exact duplicates of the mother and would be feminized seeds, sprouting out entirely female plants.

At that 1997 Vancouver Hemp

conference, Master Grower Seus met Watson and explained his dis-covery and findings on gibberillens. That information went back with Dr Frankenbeanstein, and when he got back to Amsterdam, he called it his own invention and from there came the feminized seed phenome-non. Watson sold his new discovery to all takers. One Dutch seed bank even claim that it is their own invention — I guess because they bought the formula from Skunkman. However, over-applica-tion of gibberillens causes smaller and less-vigorous seed! Due to the habit of not letting them fully fin-ish, the seeds are grey, indistinct and hard to sprout.

Recently, Dr Frankenbeanstein tes-tified at another conference in Canada against the use of industri-al hemp in Canada. GW Pharm/Hortapharm are scared of the hemp industry. Why? You see, low industrial hemp produces GW’s miracle drug, CBD, as a by-product! There is primarily one gene that tells a plant to be either a primary CBD producer or a pri-mary THC producer — the Bd gene produces the enzyme that converts cannabigerol into CBD, and the Bt gene produces enzyme that converts cannabigerl into THC. If a plant inherits a Bt gene from each parent, it will only pro-duce the low cannabigerol of CBD, and visa-versa if it gets a Bd gene from each parent. If it receives a Bd from one parent, and Bt from another, it will be roughly a 50/50 chemotype, but this is not true breeding. Most herb in the med clubs is homozygous for BT, mean-ing that it does not produce appre-ciable amounts of CBD. Since CBD actually blocks the psychoactive effects of THC, it was selected against by American breeders, even though it is extremely effective in boosting the medical efficacy of cannabis, especially with regards to degenerative nervous condition — all without any psychoactivity.

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Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 27

www

.old-picture.com

Cannabis has only been illegal 72 years; it had always been legal before. 100 years ago, you could buy Cannabis Sativa Americana and Cannabis Indica extract from Parke Davis Phar-maceuticals at your local drug store. In fact, in the early 20th century, Parke Davis seed collec-tors introduced Indian sub-con-tinent seed into Southern Appalachia to create Cannabis Americana of equal or greater potency to the Indian sub-conti-nent product they were having difficulty importing due to World War I. Parke Davis col-lected seeds from India, Turkestan, and Nepal before sending them back to be grown in the Blue Ridge mountains and Mexico. Parke Davis scien-tists conducted blind trials on themselves and found the American product to be both more pleasant and more potent. Those heritage med-ical strains were selected from 100s of years of legal selective breeding. Nothing today comes close to the heirloom med-ical strains from that period. Any-one who states that the cannabis of today is stronger than yesteryear is dreaming. The pot they smoked in the tea pads of Harlem in the 1920s to ’30s was much better than any concocted strains today!

Dr. Frankenbeanstein, with the help of Rob Clarke, Mel Frank, Ed Rosenthal and Milla, engineered the largest misinformation cam-paign in cannabis history, that only diluted the original Ice Water tech-nique by attaching the ancient dry seiving method, to confuse the ori-gin of the now-patented Ice Water method. Attaching this sieving technique to the Ice Water method enabled them to sell Nylon at wed-ding dress prices, but makes no sense! Due to their scam, most of the bag product is no progress since it contains more fiber than old-style quality, dry-sieved Hash, and lost taste and aroma!

In the Soumi LaValle book on hashish, you see firsthand the sieving t e c h n i q u e used by a L e b a n e s e family in Baalbek. The d i f f e r e n t s c r e e n i n g process is shown in its entirety in the book; from that came the idea for bags. In a dry sieve, you d o n ’ t r e l e a s e oils, so the natu-r a l s terepenes are in the h a s h , which is sticky. The bag technique releases the oils but only collects broken pieces of resin akin to kief, not hash! The Lebanese women doing the seiving, could outperform 1000 people using bags. It wasn’t a revolutionary technique in hash making, it was a backward step!

Yet clever Dutch and Canadian marketing sent out a huge learning curve, and people have been ruin-ing there medicine ever since! This ripoff of a patent method will soon be settled in a Canadian court. I hate to burst your bubble but Milla and Bubbleman had nothing to do with inventing the Ice Water tech-nique, except to register a patent which made all traditional forms of processing cannabis obsolete. Dr. Frankenbeans sold a patented method that did not belong to him, and laid the foundation for GW Pharmaceuticals — we all know that the first step of making Sativex is Ice Water Extraction! The dam-age that has been done to Cannabis

is immeasurable! He even sold Mexican and Central American genetics, as well as Afghan genetics to GW as his own! A call to GW, and we were told that David Wat-son and Robert C. Clarke no longer work there. Robert Clarke’s book on hashish, as well as those by Rosenthal, Cervantes and Mel Frank, all wrote in support of the fraud. You see those idiots go by one rule — all stoners are stupid. They feed on young stoner’s and medical patients with no cannabis knowledge. Since Dutch seed com-panies control the media and infor-mation, they feel that cannabis con-sumers will buy whatever they tell them to buy! When old school ran the cannabis scene, you paid $30-50 an ounce for super Columbian gold and red, $60 to 75 an ounce for high altitude seedless Mexican sativa, $100 an ounce for the best Thai, $150 for Hawaiian so strong you thought you were on acid.! Now you pay $35 for one seed of Jack Herer, which is Mexican genetics. Ed Rosenthal sold our pot culture to the Dutch Monopoly, and now the Dutch seed companies are selling it back to us at $20 a seed!

By 2009, several old school pio-neers published books debunking all the myth and outright lying sur-rounding David Watson/Dr Frankenbeanstein. The Dutch cannabis industry should thank Ronald Reagan by naming a sewer canal after him! Reagan shut them down, imprisoned them for years, stripped them of their wealth and left them with nothing to defend themselves with. In fact, the Black Tuna gang leader’s still in prison after nearly 30 years and Brian Daniels, the Thai Stick King, recently released after 27 years. Howard Marks — who no doubt sold a lot of cannabis — was a spoke in the Daniels Wheel! The U.S. Air force, Navy, and the Coast Guard were used to shut down the entire Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, the Eastern and Western seaboard. Tincture Bottle by Parke Davis.

For numerous reasons this Parke-Davis Cannabis Fluid Extract Bottle has become the most famous and sought after of all Cannabis antique bottles, literally the pride of any collection. It literally repre-sents the height of botanical medical technology.

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Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 29

They succeeded in finally shutting us down, but before we were shut down we had a baby, and that baby was called Home Grown Ameri-can, from the seeds we brought back from Asia!

Watson’s claim that he was the breeder of California Orange is debunked by Jerry Beisler’s book, The Bandit of Kabul. In the book, Jerry shows his creation California Orange and some of the earliest photos of outdoor grows known circa 1973 to 74 — Jerry ran one of the earliest documented seed banks in California!

Without Ronald Reagan, the Dutch cannabis industry would have never happened. The pot scene is an American phenomenon that spread around the globe! It is just a matter of time before one of the medical states legalizes and taxes and regulates cannabis. In fact, there is a bill being presented in California that would do just that. It would tax cannabis $50 an ounce! The billions in revenue that would generate would cause other medical states to follow — remem-ber folks, we are in a depression! California legalization is the Dutch Cannabis industry’s worst night-mare. Once the coffee shops open in San Francisco, that will be the death of the Dutch ripoff scene. American seed banks will be able to operate openly on the world stage! Organic landrace American seed unpolluted by Dutch genetics will take over the market worldwide! The original strains are still avail-able and wild cannabis still flour-ishes. American growers are going back to the original heirloom med-ical strains and creating their own hybrids. Most of the original Amer-ican strains have been bred and re-bred, engineered and re-engineered by the Dutch seed companies, that at this point are useless to the breeder.

Monsanto terminator technology is

being applied to our beloved cannabis by Dr. Frankenbeanstein at Hortapharm in Holland. Let me explain exactly what this means and use cotton as example. In the cotton example, the goal is to develop a variety of cotton that will grow normally until the crop is almost mature. Then, and only then, a toxin will be produced in the (seed) embryos, specifically killing the entire next generation of seeds. The system has three compo-nents: 1. A gene for a toxin that will kill the seed late in development, but that will not kill any other part of the plant. 2. A method for allow-ing a plant breeder to grow several generations of cotton plants, already genetically-engineered to contain the seed-specific toxin gene, without any seeds dying. This is required to produce enough seeds to sell for farmers’ to plant. 3. A method for activating the engi-neered seed- specific toxin gene after the farmer plants the seeds, so that the farmer’s second generation will be killed. These three tasks are accomplished by engineering a series of genes, which are all trans-ferred permanently to the plant, so that they are passed on via the nor-mal reproduction of the plant. Dr Frankenbeanstein threatened Skunk magazine to have all Dutch advertizing cancelled, which amounts to 60% of their revenue, after printing part one of this arti-cle! This is the complete article. Skunk, High Times, Cannabis Cul-ture, Weed World are in reality trade pamphlets that support the continuing rip off of our cannabis community by Hortapharm/GW Pharm/DEA and the Dutch Cannabis Industry.

The one beacon of truth telling in our community is Treating Yourself magazine. My only claim to fame being that I have always been a general in Lord Shiva’s Ganja Army.

Bom Shiva Bom Shankar, Joe Pietri

Top Joe Ganja

Bottom

Jerry Beisler Afghanistan 1972 Afghani Indica x Acapulco Gold

HEMP CHRONICLES

Here I am, in the “great Common-wealth of Kentucky,” on January 2, 2009 without a physician to attend to my health needs, after fif-teen long years of struggle. Why? Because I smoke cannabis for pain and anxiety among other condi-tions.

Since 1998, I have been through at least eight “pain clinics” and a sin-gle M.D. that had stood beside me since 1995. But as of today, I have been “fired” as a patient for having a positive drug screen which only showed positive for Marijuana when he referred me to the last pain clinic.

Cut off, after fifteen years, for hav-ing used cannabis for my own health.

My medical history is complicated to say the least. I have been diag-nosed with many things, and to this day I am not really sure what is wrong with me. In my experi-ence, the doctors in Louisville like to “cut and release” — and if you ask questions, you will get the gen-eralized answers that you already knew to begin with. In short, if your heart is still beating when you walk in the office, you must be okay.

The following is a short synopsis of my medical history, (though not all conclusive):

1960-1978 Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy due to chronic sickness up to 1970.

1978 – Diagnosed with chronic depression

1983 – Diagnosed with chronic depression/anxiety

1985 – Tubal Ligation

1990- Along with the “depres-sion/anxiety” I began having chronic abdominal pain and blad-der pain. I was (and had been all of my life) treated for chronic blad-der infections.

I was having so much illness that it prompted me to leave my job of five years with a predominant

insurance company because I just could not cope with the pain and sickness anymore.

1991 – I was referred to a “women’s clinic” where I was con-tinually seen for chronic cervical infections and bladder infections. Between 1991-1993 I had many trips to the ER because of those infections. Of note, they always attributed my pain to the depres-sion and anxiety and never gave me any pain medication until a month before surgery in 1993. 1993 – The Gynecologist decided that I had several cysts on my ovaries after an ultrasound, and said that he would do a partial hys-terectomy and a bladder tie and that that should take care of the situation. During the surgery, a needle was broken off in my pelvic bone, which they managed to extract after several additional hours in surgery. After the surgery, I continued to have pelvic pain, and bladder infections.

1994 – The Gynecologist decided it was probably adhesions, and that they would do an outpatient

sur-gery to try to resolve the problem. That did not work either.

1995 – I was finally put on Medi-care after having been given Dis-ability in 2003 for depression. After living through hell the previ-ous ten years, I decided to go to an internist down the street from where I lived. At that point I was put on pain medication. However, there had been no real diagnosis of the pain I was having.

1995 – A friend encouraged me to see her “surgeon,” at which time I received emergency surgery for Gallbladder Disease. The Sur-geons stopped counting after 60 large stones and informed my fam-ily that my “insides looked like someone took a hot glue gun to them”. The scar tissue had been so bad that they could not find my appendix or “I would have taken that out too”, he had said. Unfor-tunately for me, shortly after my surgery he left the state to go back to his home country.

1996 – Continuing on pain med-ication from my internist, and still having many bladder problems

Why I was

“fired”

_{from my physician in}

Louisville, Kentucky.

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Treating Yourself, Issue 17 - 2009 - 31

and pelvic problems, I went to another Gynecologist who offered to do a “total hysterectomy and adhesion removal.” I was sent to outpatient surgery, but ended up in the hospital for a number of days because the surgery was intense. I continued on through 1997 still having abdominal pain, and still on pain medication. In 1998 he referred me to a “pain clinic”. 1998 – After coming down with an unknown illness with a high fever, my internist admitted me to the hospital where the next day I had a CVA/Stroke. The pain clinic I had been seeing had me on oxycontin and hydrocodone, along with Neu-rontin and was located in the same hospital where I was admitted. However, somehow, when I was released 10 days later and was about to receive my medication to go home on, there was a mix up in the doctor’s names on the prescrip-tions and I was investigated for “doctor shopping” and released from their pain clinic. I was cleared of any wrongdoing but the damage had already been done. My internist continued to prescribe

my pain medication until 2003. Of note, I had stopped the oxycontin and Neurontin as they where real-ly hard on my depression. The Neurologist that had taken my case in the hospital “fired” me for being “too ill for him to treat.” 2003 – I am forced into a pain clin-ic again. Incidentally, this clinclin-ic turned out to be the largest legal narcotic writer in Kentucky. I was given oxycontin, morphine, large amounts of hydrocodone or oxy-codone. The doctor attempted a “plexis block” of my abdomen at which time one or both of my Kid-neys were punctured. I bled for 12 hours, but “I was okay, and it was nothing to worry about” — as per the doctor. Then came the methadone. I was frazzled all the time. I was a “legal” drug addict that almost burned down the house more than once. I tried to continue on and eventually quit taking everything except hydrocodone and an occasional soma. But in 2006, I was given a “drug test” which showed that I was smoking Marijuana and guess what...? They refused to fill any more narcotics except the

methadone. At that point, I gave it back to them and told them they could keep it. I “fired” them. I then went back to my internist, who agreed to prescribe my hydrocodone. But between 2003 and 2008 I was turned down by many other pain clinics.

Then, in December of 2008, the decision was made that my internist could no longer fill my medications because of a PDS at the last pain clinic. He then “fired” me.

Of note, during the period of 2001 from 2008, I had lost my first grandchild to a stillbirth, cared for and lost my father in 2001 and continued to live with my Mother and care for her until she was so ill that I was forced to put her in a nursing home in 2007. My Mother died on November 24, 2008. Previous to that, I had lost my best friend “Sally,” my dog that had always been beside me through it all since 1993. My heart has been irreversibly broken. So with all of this loss on my mind, and then losing my only doctor of fifteen years, I have really been tested. I credit prayer and family and my “cannabis” for my sur-vival. There were so many times I just wanted to call it quits. But there was always some “need” for me to be here.

Back in 2003 I had started researching online about “medical marijuana.” I knew I used it, and I knew I needed it, but I had just thought I was a “pot smoker.” I had never credited it with saving my life until after my Dad died in 2001. You see, he had called me about three months prior to his death and asked me if I could get him some. Because of my igno-rance about the medical benefits of marijuana, my Father died without the medication that could have reduced his misery. My Mother was diagnosed with HBP and